www.elsblog.org - Bringing Data and Methods to Our Legal Madness

28 November 2007

New York State Judge Sacked

By a 9 to 1 vote, the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct recently removed Judge Robert Restaino from his position as a judge of the Niagara Falls City Court. According to the commission:

“In an egregious and unprecedented abuse of judicial power,
respondent committed 46 defendants into police custody in a bizarre,
unsuccessful effort to discover the owner of a ringing cell phone in the
courtroom. In doing so, he inexplicably
persisted in his conduct over some two hours, questioning the defendants
individually about the phone before committing them into custody, and ignoring
the pleas of numerous defendants who protested that his conduct was unfair and
pleaded that he reconsider. Respondent’s
conduct, which resulted in the unjustified detention of the defendants for
several hours and the incarceration of 14 defendants in the County Jail,
caused irreparable damage to public confidence in the fair and proper
administration of justice in his court.”

The commission’s decision is dated November 13, 2007, but the press is only now reporting the story. The commission’s decision, which includes both a concurrence and a dissent, is here.